Tuesday, January 05, 2010

In Sierra Leone, pop music is a beat that drives politics

latimes.comIn Sierra Leone, pop music is a beat that drives politicsPolitical debate in the African nation often takes the form of protest songs; some have even toppled governments. Mostly illiterate, citizens rely heavily on singers for an independent take on events.

By Scott Kraft

January 3, 2010

Reporting from Freetown, Sierra Leone

Everywhere he went in Freetown's ghettos, a dreadlocked young vocalist named Innocent heard the plea. People were fed up with lies, theft and corruption. This government had to go, they said, and they begged Innocent to speak out.

So late one night, Innocent drove to Forensic Studios, a rundown pair of rooms on a clamorous downtown street. The sound engineer was asleep on an old sofa, and Innocent shook him awake.

"Let's do something," Innocent said, "and release it tomorrow."

The single "Injectment Notice" -- "eviction notice" in the lingua franca of Sierra Leone -- helped spark a ballot-box rebellion in 2007. "I told people: If you don't like this government, vote them out," he said. "And it actually happened."

Sierra Leone's engaging blend of hip-hop, Afro-pop and reggae sounds flourished after the end of the brutal, decade-long civil war in 2002, and the number of radio stations playing those tunes swelled from nine to more than 50.

Today, music here is more than simple entertainment. It has become the vehicle for a decibel-busting national political debate. With the sixth-highest rate of illiteracy in the world and a deep suspicion of the ruling elite, Sierra Leone's 6 million people rely heavily on their pop stars -- often educated and well-traveled -- for an independent take on what's going on.

"These songs are the only way the masses have of expressing what they want to say," said Emrys Savage, a record producer and former DJ who wears Che Guevara T-shirts and goes by the name King Fisher. "For us, it's all about bringing social change."

In recent weeks, though, Innocent, a grandson of Nigeria's Afrobeat mega-star Fela Kuti, has been locked in a musical smack-down with one of the country's most famous singers, Emmerson Bockarie, over a question much of the nation is asking: How is the new government doing?

The answer isn't so clear in a fledgling democracy with vast unmet needs and high expectations, a nation where the new government felt compelled to create an Office of Attitudinal Change to inspire patriotism. "Our goal is to remake and rebrand the image of this country" and encourage Sierra Leoneans to change their "bad attitudes," said Allieu Kamara, a former Washington insurance salesman who runs the office.

Both Innocent and Emmerson had helped light the fire that consumed the last government. Even before Innocent released his protest song, Emmerson had recorded "Borbor Bele" ("Pot-Bellied Boy"), which speared corpulent politicians who sold themselves to the highest bidders.

The protest song industry largely fell silent when President Ernest Bai Koroma of the All People's Congress took office in 2007, riding a wave of promises to end corruption, improve healthcare and bring electricity and clean water to the hundreds of thousands of Sierra Leoneans without it.

Emmerson, for one, had high hopes. "I was confident that this government would bring about change, and that's why I kept silent," he said. "I really believed."

But when he returned from a U.S. tour a few months ago, he didn't like what he saw. "It's been more than two years and we're still not seeing any foundation or any road being built to change," he said. "This government is feeling too comfortable and too loved. They need to work harder."

Emmerson went back to the recording studio and laid down the track for "Yesterday Betteh Pass Tiday" -- "Yesterday Was Better Than Today."

"Whenever we think we have a savior," he sings, "we see a government that betrays the people. Maybe tomorrow will be better, but no one knows tomorrow. I don't know about you, but my yesterday was better than today."

That message of discontent touched off a firestorm.

Emmerson is "simply the best lyrical musician in Sierra Leone," said the editor of the New Citizen newspaper, but to argue that yesterday is better than today "is absurd."

That first moment that sought to document an act, an idea, a presence, an existence, a deity...that initial spark of creativity born of desire to intensify experience, enhance a space, beautify a body,paint a cave wall, decorate a tool...that first shuffling of utterances, that first gesture, that first rhythm, that first song...that was when we truly became human.--Kevin